Headwork1

HEAHEAHEAHEA WORKWORKWORKWORK

Fourteen Real-Life Chances to Use Your Head for Something Other

Than a Hat Rack

No matter what you’re doing, headwork is a factor

What is headwork?

• making choices based on sound reasoning• good judgment• choosing workable courses of action• making good decisions about common-sense

risks under pressure or when in a hurry

This training gives you a chance to study situations before you see the photo. How would you manage the challenges? The scenarios fall into these categories:

• Judgment compromised by haste (“Get’r done!”)• Right tools aren’t available• Ingenious? Or un-genius? • PPE doesn’t make you invincible• Worst case isn’t impossible• Just because it worked once doesn’t make it a good

idea

What exactly does poor headwork look like?

• What are the risks?• What are the best ways to manage them?

Discussion: Before you see the photo

Discussion: After you see the photo

• What are they doing wrong?• Are they doing anything right?• What should they have done?• Why do you think the people involved made the

decisions they did?• Would you be prone to similar lapses in

judgment?

• The 4th of July is approaching.• You want to sell fireworks from a roadside

stand.• What dangers are associated with fireworks?• List some things to avoid having around

fireworks to reduce risk.

#1: The worst-case isn’t impossible

Discussion

• Are gas-storage tanks foolproof?• Has there ever been a fire at a fireworks stand?• Research has shown that people fail to safeguard

themselves from most organizational accidents because they think such accidents are not merely unlikely, they strongly believe that the accidents are “impossible.”

#2: The worst-case isn’t impossible, part 2

• You’re on vacation at a glacier.• You want a piece of ice as a souvenir (assuming

it would look different or better than a regular piece of ice available at your motel)

• A warning sign says, “Do not enter” and some other stuff that you may or may not bother to read.

• What are the risks of walking up to a glacier?

Discussion

• Is there a reason why warning signs don’t apply to you?

• Do they not apply if you want to ignore them for “just a minute”?

• Why would you want a piece of ice? What would you do with it?

#3: The right tools aren’t available

• You have to clean some windows that are accessible only from the entrance ramp to a parking garage.

• You have a ladder that is long enough.• What are the risks of putting up a ladder at the

entrance to the garage?• Is it your experience that drivers always pay

attention and drive slowly enough to keep control of their cars?

Discussion

• Would you stake your life on this by climbing up that ladder?

• Have you ever noticed all the black marks and paint scratched off the concrete poles that protect the pumps at gas stations?

• Could the workers involved have made better decisions?• Why did they choose not to do so?• How hard is it to find some of those little orange cones

or, better yet, station someone to guide traffic?

#4: The right tools aren’t available, part 2

• You need to do some mechanical work underneath a car.

• You don’t have a garage with an automatic lift.• You do have a pair of forklifts.• You have never seen a forklift tip over, so they

must have some kind of counter weight in back.

Discussion

• Are forklifts (especially antiques, like that one on the left) foolproof?

• Would you stand under this car?

#5: The right tools aren’t available, part 3

• You’re digging in a trench.• The walls are dirt with large rocks embedded in

them.• A rock might fall on your head.• Your supervisor has a hardhat, but you don’t.

Discussion

• Why didn’t the other guy give you his hard hat and get out of there?

• If buckets are such a great idea, why don’t they do away with hard hats and just use buckets instead?

• Where is the shoring?

#7: The right tools aren’t available, part 4

• You need to do some work in the overhead at an airport.

• You need to reach something that is 16 feet high.

• Your stepladder is 10 feet high.• Your arms are six feet above your shoes.

Discussion

• If you were supervising people doing this work, what could you have told them to reduce the risk of “clever” solutions?

• What does the “Not” in “Not-a-Step” mean?• Did this person think that the warning label

didn’t apply to him or was only for “stupid” or uncoordinated people?

• How good is your sense of balance?

#8: The right tools aren’t available, part 5

• You have to drill holes at the 8’ level in a compartment.

• You don’t have a stepladder, or you are too lazy to move it around with you while you climb up and down.

• You have some plastic, 5-gallon buckets and some tape.

Discussion

• Is not having to use a ladder worth being four times as clumsy?

• Should the manufacturers of plastic buckets add a warning label that says, “Caution: Do Not Use as a Ladder”?

#9: Judgment compromised by haste

• You’re commuting home on a toll road and are approaching the toll booth.

• So is another guy.• You are neck-and-neck.• You are in a hurry.• You figure he will probably yield the right-of-

way to you.

Discussion

• Which driver was in a greater hurry?• Who paid the toll?• Calculate the ratio of the total cost of the car

repairs to the value of the time that would have been saved by being first to the toll booth.

• How would you explain this to a state trooper?

#10: Judgment compromised by haste, part 2

• The fuses keep blowing, killing power to some equipment you’re using.

• You are tired of replacing them, only to have them blow again.

• Why do we have fuses and circuit breakers in electrical equipment?

• What is the riskiest or worst thing you can do now?

Discussion

• Just because something appears to work in the short-term, does that mean it is safe for the long-term?

• Why were the fuses blowing in the first place?• Are electricians extinct in that part of the

country?

#11: Judgment compromised by haste, part 3

• It has been raining heavily for several days.• News reports indicate that some roads are under

water.• You need to cross one such road and aren’t sure

exactly how deep it is.• What would go through your mind about what to do

next?• Are there any circumstances under which it makes

sense to “risk it?”

Discussion

• Because you can say, “So far, so good,” does that mean it will last forever?

• Which takes longer, going around or calling a tow truck and waiting for your vehicle to dry out?

#12: Ingenious? Or Un-Genius?

• You have to do some work on the front of a grocery store.

• You have about half as much scaffold as you need.

• You have a work stand.• You have a large front-end loader.• You have always admired high-wire acts.

Discussion

• Just because a machine is designed to lift something, does that mean it can (or should) lift anything?

• Would you have put a stepladder on the very top if you needed to get even higher?

#13: Ingenious? Or Un-Genius?, part 2

• It is spring break.• You desperately want to impress your peers and

the ladies, not necessarily in that order.• Or perhaps you have been drinking so much you

aren’t sure what you are thinking.• You have a tiny little scooter.• Another guy has a jacked-up truck with giant

wheels.

• Is there some reason the driver will never have to slam on the brakes?

• What kind of lady would be attracted to a guy like this?

Discussion

• You have a motorcycle.• You have a t-shirt with an excellent slogan

printed on it.• You ride to a store.• What is the quickest way to show people that

safety is not on your mind as you ride your motorcycle?

#14: Just because it worked once doesn’t make it a good idea

Discussion

• If you “think safety,” wouldn’t you want to protect the part of your body that does the thinking?

• Is he wearing this t-shirt to be ironic, or does he think “safety” is just for other people who are not as skilled as he is?

• Even if he knows what “ironic” means, does it make any sense to illustrate it this way?

The End

Your Job: Make common sense a lot more common than it seems to be